


Tender Is the Night

by pan_dora



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Cuddles, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Pet Names, Steo, Stiles/Theo - Freeform, comfort after a nightmare, domestic steo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 09:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pan_dora/pseuds/pan_dora
Summary: His nightmares keep Stiles up at night. Theo keeps him company.





	Tender Is the Night

“Babe?” The word was quiet, barely audible over the whisk clanking against the bowl. “What are you doing up at three thirty in the morning?” The old floorboards in front of the kitchen creaked quietly when Theo walked inside. “Are you baking a cake?”

Stiles huffed out a breath, inspecting the batter in front of him for a second. “Look,” he replied then poking the screen of his phone to get the recipe back, “could you, just this once, perhaps not question my insomnia for however long it takes to finish these cookies?”

Theo sighed. It’s not his usual ‘why am I doing this to myself’ kind of sigh which sometimes varied to a ‘is this really what I signed up for?’ one. It’s the one that told Stiles they were going to have _that_ talk again. The one during which Theo tried to make him open up about what’s going on in his head. It’s disgusting.

Stiles would probably go insane without it.

He pressed his hands against the kitchen counter, squeezing his eyes shut. Theo brushed against him grabbing the bowl. He dropped the whisk in the sink, opened and closed the door to the fridge as he put the unfinished dough away. Telling him to stop would be pointless, so would arguing with him about his patronising behaviour be. It’s just something Theo did. He meant well. He was trying to help in the ways he could. It hadn’t gone too well at first. Stiles remembered yelling at him that not everything could be solved with sex when on other occasions everything Stiles wanted was to have sex to make his mind shut up. Theo had needed weeks to learn the difference, but he had worked through this, and Stiles had tried his best to explain it to him. They were both still in the getting to know the other while living together phase. It meant that Theo noticed every single nightmare Stiles had instead of one every now and then. But it also meant that Stiles had learnt Theo was incapable of cooking and constantly forgetting where he had put his wallet. Additionally, it had become rather obvious that Stiles had done the housework since he had been young because Theo still had to learn quite some things. He did what he was told without moping, however, unless he had to hoover.

“Come on,” Theo ordered in a hushed whisper. Nobody else lived here. He didn’t need to be quiet, but he was, and his fingers intertwined gently with Stiles’. It almost felt like he didn’t drag him back to their bedroom. He followed him without resistance. He always did, just like Theo was following him everywhere; even when he didn’t want to.

Last year, for example, the first Christmas away from Beacon Hills. Scott and Kira had decided to do a pack thing, get everyone together. Theo hadn’t been invited, so Stiles hadn’t gone. Although Theo had told him not to make such a big deal out of it, Stiles had packed a couple of things and decided they’d go to his dad a day earlier then, that he wouldn’t leave his boyfriend alone a day before Christmas. Theo didn’t care about Christmas or any other holiday. They were days of the year for him. Nothing special. When the invitations for the New Year's Eve party had come in, Scott had offered Stiles could bring Theo, who hadn’t had any intend to go. He had known he hadn’t been wanted by the host, and it had been before Theo had formed a hesitant friendship with the puppy pack – his term of endearment for Liam, Mason, Corey and Nolan. Stiles had told him he wouldn’t leave him alone on New Year’s Eve. They had almost gotten into their first real fight since living together because Theo had consistently told him – was still telling him – that he didn’t care what they thought about him, that it was fine.

But Stiles cared, and it wasn’t fine.

Theo closed their bedroom door with his foot, nudging it a second time until the lock clicked loud in the silence of the night. “Arms up.” It’s his thing. He needed to have the bedroom door closed or he couldn’t sleep.

“Theo-“

“Arms _up_.”

Stiles did what he was asked, sighing quietly as Theo pulled his shirt over his head. It didn’t stop the feeling of being patronised, but his learned experience forbade the chimera from telling his boyfriend to strip. To make sure Stiles could tell that he didn’t intend to seduce him, Theo had decided to make it as weird as possible. As small laugh escaped his lips, and Theo did his little smirk – an expression only visible because they slept without their blinds closed. Darkness wasn’t their friend.

Stiles slipped into bed first because Theo couldn’t sleep cornered between him and the wall. He also didn’t like to let him sleep unprotected. Stiles waited for the day Theo would feel safe in his own home; when he stopped seeing monsters dancing in the shadows in the corner of the room. He was haunted by his waking thoughts, Stiles by his nightmares.

Theo slipped in bed after him pulling the blanket up until their legs and hips were covered. “It’s a five-hour drive back home,” he reminded him running his fingers up and down his spine. Goosebumps followed his fingertips. Skin on skin contact always helped Stiles to relax. “We could pack some things, stay the weekend. You said he’s on early shift.” His nightmares varied, but they mostly revolved around two things – killing Donovan or seeing his dad die. Theo seemed to be able to distinguish between which nightmare he had. Perhaps because of his reactions. Dreaming about his father caused him to get up, to do something, anything really, that reminded him he was still alive. Dreaming about Donovan, on the other hand, wanted to make him forget. That’s when he needed Theo because the other option had been a bottle of whiskey, which he had stared at until Theo had come home and yelled at him and taken it away.   

“I can’t drive home whenever I had a nightmare,” Stiles replied turning his head to look at his boyfriend. “Also, you invited the puppy pack over.”

Theo frowned at him. “I think they’d understand-“

“No,” he replied, then shook his head. “I mean, yes, they’d understand but I’ll call dad in the morning. It’s just a nightmare. He’s fine.” Despite knowing his dad was alive and well, his mind reminded him a lot of nights how he had found him, bloody and dying, lying on the floor. Sometimes it was cruel enough to show him how different the outcome could have been. “Also, I’ve started making Kołaczki to lure Nolan in.” Stiles rolled onto his side, wrapping his arm around Theo’s waist to pull him closer. “He’s still afraid of you, you know?” Theo continued to frown, and Stiles ran his thumb along the bridge of his nose, up to his forehead. “You’re too young to get wrinkles.”

Finally, Theo budged and rolled them over until he was lying on top of him. “But you can frown as much as you want?”

“As the eldest, I have the right to do so.”

Theo snorted. “You’re seven days older than me, babe.”

“There’s that pet name again.”

“It’s a term of endearment,” Theo protested before leaning down for a quick kiss.

“I don’t like it,” Stiles muttered against his lips, “and you’re kinda heavy.”

“Pure muscle, honey.”

“Oh _god,_ ” Stiles groaned poking his side. “Get off me, you clown.”

Theo laughed as he shifted most of his weight onto his forearms and kissed him again instead. With a content hum, Stiles wrapped his arms around the nape of his neck. “Snookums.”

“Shitbag.”

“Darling.”

Stiles contemplated his answer for a second. “Dork.”

Theo ran his hands along his sides, smirking. “Precious.”

“Prick.”

Despite everything, being with Theo was astonishingly easy, and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. There was a human hidden deep inside the monster the Dread Doctors had tried to create. They had never been able to eradicate everything good in him, and he loved to see how the broken teenager slowly but surely mended at his side. Having Theo laugh at the dumbest shit could be the best thing Stiles witnessed all day; and when he had asked him a week ago, when Liam, Corey, Mason and Nolan would visit them again, a heavy weight had fallen of his shoulders. Theo had never suggested before that someone should come over – other than Stiles’ dad and Lydia at least. But Lydia was living in Pasadena, too, because they both studied criminal justice at the California State University while Theo was currently majoring in Biology at the same university. So, having him ask for the puppy pack to come over for a weekend was, actually, quite the big step. _Of course_ , he didn’t want them to know that he had asked. But Stiles knew, and, for now, that’s enough.

“Are you really okay with just calling?” Theo ran his fingertips along Stiles’ hairline, and he closed his eyes to savour the soft tingles. They didn’t cuddle nearly often enough – and when they did, it happened mostly after a bad dream. Like now. They had to adopt cuddle time into their daily routine more often.

Stiles blinked his eyes open. “If you cancel on them, I’ll tell Liam you cried during The Lion King.”

“If my memory doesn’t fail me, I wasn’t the only one.”

“Well, I don’t have my badass reputation to lose.”

Theo attempted to glower at him. It’s a four out of ten, a for effort kind of deal because far too soon, he broke character and snorted out a laugh. “Why do I even love you?”

“Because of my irresistible charm slash sparkling personality?” Stiles suggested moving his legs to offer more room between his thighs for Theo to slip in. He did, and he smiled, and it was perfect. Happiness was the most wonderful thing blooming on his features. It’s something Stiles could never get enough off. “Good thing it just so happens I love you too, I suppose.” He ran his fingers through the short strands and placed his hand at the nape of his neck.

“I’m truly the lucky one.”

Stiles scrunched up his nose. “Do I detect sarcasm?”

“No,” Theo replied pressing a kiss to his forehead. “No, you’re not.”

“Good.” Stiles curled his fingers into Theo’s hair and pulled him down for another kiss. _Very good_. Because he was lucky, too.


End file.
